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Fascinating Rosetta Image Captures Philae's Comet Bounce 69

Posted by samzenpus from the where's-waldo dept.
mpicpp points out that high-resolution pictures have been released of Philae's landing. "The hunt for Rosetta's lost lander Philae is gaining steam as scientists pore over images from above the comet that may help reveal its final location. The ESA released an image Monday taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera showing Philae's first bounce on the comet. The mosaic includes a series of pictures tracking the lander descending toward the comet, the initial touchdown point and then an image of the lander moving east. 'The imaging team is confident that combining the CONSERT ranging data with OSIRIS and navcam images from the orbiter and images from near the surface and on it from Philae's ROLIS and CIVA cameras will soon reveal the lander's whereabouts,' says the ESA."
Education

Coding Bootcamps Presented As "College Alternative" 226

Posted by samzenpus from the pop-goes-the-bubble dept.
ErichTheRed writes Perhaps this is the sign that the Web 2.0 bubble is finally at its peak. CNN produced a piece on DevBootcamp, a 19-week intensive coding academy designed to turn out Web developers at a rapid pace. I remember Microsoft and Cisco certification bootcamps from the peak of the last tech bubble, and the flood of under-qualified "IT professionals" they produced. Now that developer bootcamps are in the mainsteam media, can the end of the bubble be far away?

Submission + - A second act for the Wooly Mammoth?

Submitted by Clark Schultz
Clark Schultz writes: The premise behind Jurassic Park just got a bit realer after scientists in South Korea said they are optimistic they can extract enough DNA from the blood of a preserved wooly mammoth to clone the long-extinct mammal. The ice-wrapped wooly mammoth was found last year on an island off of Siberia. The development is being closely-watched by the scientific community with opinion sharply divided on the ethics of the project.

Submission + - BitTorrent Now Lets Anyone Sell Content Via Its Bundle Publishing Platform

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: BitTorrent today announced it is opening up paygated Bundles, the company’s direct-to-fan publishing platform, to all artists. For context, paygates allow artists to monetize their Bundle content directly, though fans can only download the package a limited number of times before it is locked (it’s essentially BitTorrent’s version of DRM; a Bundle can’t be opened once it locks). BitTorrent takes a 10 percent cut, and artists get to keep 90 percent of the sales revenue.

Comment Design flaws (Score 0) 88

by Taco Cowboy (#48398785) Attached to: After Four Days, Philae Team Gets to Rest

Pretty sure having working landing gear would have solved the problem

These are all Monday morning quarterbacking, but truth is that all of us should learn from the unfortunate design mistakes that ESA has made

Working landing gear is one, but a bigger design flaw is that they (the ESA probe landing team) assumed that they could land the probe on a comet just like they land a probe the size of the Moon or Mars

All they have, before they release the probe, was a series of GO / NO GO checklist, on the few chosen "preferred landing spot" on that comet

There was no contigensy plan for the many "what ifs" that may happen

And the design of their probe (the shape of it) is exactly like the probe others have used on Mars / Moon - a box with a few legs beneath it

Instead of design the probe with a shape that could deal with more "what if" scenario --- that might greatly enhance the survival of the probe if the probe ended up in non-optimal spots

And the power supply --- why send up a thing to a piece of flying rock in space, chase it for 10 long years, and by the time the space craft reaches the destination, it only has hours of power supply left??

The ESA Rosetta mission turns out to be a showcase of a series of what _not_ to do if one wants to launch a space probe to space

Submission + - Islam inside the Western country (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Anjem Choudary, a British-born lawyer turned Islamic preacher, who lives in London and has for years been asserting his democratic right to call for an end to democracy

Anjem Choudary: I believe Islam is superior. And will not be surpassed. So I believe that the law of God is much superior to man-made law

Clarissa Ward: So, in that sense, you believe that Islam and democracy are mutually exclusive? That they can't exist side-by-side?

Anjem Choudary: Allah is the only one to legislate. So, obviously, in that sense it's completely, diametrically opposed. You cannot have man legislating and playing God in Parliament, and at the same time believe that Allah is the only legislator

one of Anjem's young followers, Abu Rumaysah

Abu Rumaysah: We want Islam. We want Islam to dominate the world

He is a convert from Hinduism but his new beliefs bar even the most basic human feelings towards his mother and other family members who didn't convert

Abu Rumaysah: I don't love them as non Muslims, but I desire for them to become Muslim and embrace Islam

Abu Rumaysah: It's not allowed for me to love non-Muslims. So that's something that is a matter of faith
Abu Rumaysah: Ultimately, I want to see every single woman in this country covered from head to toe. I want to the see the hand of the thief cut. I want to see adulterers stoned to death. I want to see Sharia law in Europe. And I want to see it in America as well


So ... if you guys in the West still think that you are safe, think again !!

Comment Let us see what else are in the past tense (Score 1, Offtopic) 127

by Taco Cowboy (#48394457) Attached to: US DOE Sets Sights On 300 Petaflop Supercomputer

Lawmakers weren't reading from the same script as U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz when it came to assessing the U.S.'s place in the supercomputing world. Moniz said the awards "will ensure the United States retains global leadership in supercomputing." But Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) put U.S. leadership in the past tense. "Supercomputing is one of those things that we can step up and lead the world again," he said

Let us see what else are in the past tense ...

How many of the microwave ovens / teevee sets are being made inside the United States of America?

How many of the American jobs have been "outsourced" to places like India or the Philippines?

How many top American companies are using foreigners as their CEOs? ... and the list continues ...

Comment Putting ourselves in such awkward position ... (Score 5, Insightful) 60

by Taco Cowboy (#48394383) Attached to: AT&T Stops Using 'Super Cookies' To Track Cellphone Data

Reading the TFA

AT&T Mobility, the nation's second-largest cellular provider, says it's no longer attaching hidden Internet tracking codes to data transmitted from its users' smartphones. The practice made it nearly impossible to shield its subscribers' identities online
 
 
Would be nice to hear something similar from Verizon

really makes me cringe!

First of all, why on earth we, the users, putting ourselves at the mercy of companies such as Verizon or AT&T?

I mean, WE PAID THEM to do the "data carrier job" for us, or in other words, they are not our boss

Why are we letting them having the power to inserting "super cookies" (or whatever fuck else they can come up with) inside the datastreams that we paid them to carry?

So many people making so much noise about FREE SERVICES search engines / social sites such as Google or FB for "tracking" them, where the hell are those people when PAID SERVICES such as AT&T and/or Verizon doing the same thing to them??

Why are we giving away so much of our own rights??

Comment Re:Are renewable energy generators up to task ? (Score 1) 488

by Taco Cowboy (#48366637) Attached to: Denmark Faces a Tricky Transition To 100 Percent Renewable Energy

... so we get about 500 KWh/m^2/yr ...

Poster Buchenskjoll http://slashdot.org/~Buchenskj... generously shares with us a very useful link - http://www.abaka.dk/energi/sol... - which puts it about a fourth of your estimate ... ~ 130 KWh / M^2 / year, but I get your point

Coincidentally, the National Geographic just came out with a new article - "How Green Are Those Solar Panels, Really?"
http://news.nationalgeographic...

It's worth a read

Comment Are renewable energy generators up to task ? (Score 1) 488

by Taco Cowboy (#48366441) Attached to: Denmark Faces a Tricky Transition To 100 Percent Renewable Energy

I am all for the environment but there are times I think those who are trumpeting the "renewable energy" are blowing smokes

Take the solar panel for example --- a common solar panel (not that expensive kind) with a rating of 12% can generate about 10W of power per square foot --- and in places like Denmark, the average hour of sunshine in cloudless sky per day is, -- let me be generous and put it as, -- 5 hours a day

Simple arithmetic tells us that for a one square foot of solar panel installed in Denmark it will produce about 18.25KWH per year. Multiply that by 75% (to account for dust / grime or whatever that blocks the sunlights) we get around 13.69KWH, per year

Now, what is the total energy use of a first world country like Denmark? How many square feet of solar panels must we use to generate enough power for Denmark?

I do reckon that there are other means of renewable energy - like wind turbines or geo-thermal but let's face the reality --- how many wind turbines can Denmark erect before all the birds in Denmark ended up in slices?

Submission + - What kind of Internet we need in the future? (forumblog.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Internet

Most of us can't imagine what kind of life we will have in a world without Internet. In fact, Internet is so ubiquitous that many of us are taking Internet for granted. But imagine this, Internet is changing, and may morph into a thing that none of us may recognize

In 1913, the city of London had 65 utility companies with 49 standards. In 2014, the situation echoes that of digital infrastructure, where you have multiple networks, each with different standards

How long will Internet retain its roll of being the "Conduit for Information Flow"?

Today, most municipalities still retain some kind of control over the management of Internet services, but it may not be long before this too, disappears. For Example: TaKaDu, an Israel-based company that offers cloud-based water management to cities in Australia and Singapore, monitored remotely from the other side of the world. In the near future, authorities will be able to outsource a plethora of operations, from traffic control to waste-disposal, to the cheapest, most efficient operator – wherever they may be. At the same time, immersive technologies will reduce the need for individuals to relocate to cities in order to access top-tier healthcare services

Many people regard the internet as a global entity, something that exists outside of the boundaries of national ownership. Yet the fact remains that much of the system’s core infrastructure remains in the hands that pioneered it, and specifically in Western institutions. The protocol for the assignation of IP addresses and online namespaces is handled by ICANN, based in California; authority over the internet’s Domain Name System ultimately lies with the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The Internet Society, a non-profit organization that aims to shape the development of the net for the benefit of users worldwide, now has chapters in 90 different countries – but its headquarters are located in Reston, Virginia, in the US>br>
In the wake of Edward Snowden’s electronic surveillance revelations, the movement to oppose this US dominance is gaining momentum. The recent debates over the surveillance activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have cast a spotlight upon governmental use of the internet, particularly with regards to data-tracking. The real dangers, however, lie with the rapid centralization of the internet, which has led to the emergence of monolithic platforms such as those owned by the world’s most popular search engines and social networks. While these companies may have a broadly positive impact on the experience of using the internet, their data-gathering capabilities and increasing omnipresence makes them hard to control.

Crucial bodies like ICANN currently lack members from developing nations, depriving these countries of a voice in regulatory debates. As their access to computer resources improves, developing countries will find it easier to send representatives to organizations such as ICANN – yet true progress may rely upon the creation of new institutions altogether

For all the drastic change that the growth of the internet has already brought to our lives, the years ahead will require further adaptation on the part of governments and individuals alike – particularly as the Internet of Things becomes a widespread reality

Submission + - Google to lease and refurbish Naval Air Base for space exploration (go.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Google has signed a long-term lease for part of a historic Navy air base, where it plans to renovate three massive hangars and use them for projects involving aviation, space exploration and robotics. The giant Internet company will pay $1.16 billion in rent over 60 years for the property, which also includes a working air field, golf course and other buildings. The 1,000-acre site is part of the former Moffett Field Naval Air Station on the San Francisco Peninsula. Google plans to invest more than $200 million to refurbish the hangars and add other improvements, including a museum or educational facility that will showcase the history of Moffett and Silicon Valley, according to a NASA statement. The agency said a Google subsidiary called Planetary Ventures LLC will use the hangars for "research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies"

NASA plans to continue operating its Ames Research Center on the former Navy site. Google will take over operations at the runways and hangars, including a massive structure that was built to house dirigible-style Navy airships in the 1930s. NASA said the deal will save it $6.3 million in annual maintenance and operation costs

Comment Re: China is more communist now (Score 2) 88

by Taco Cowboy (#48299601) Attached to: China To Merge High-Speed Train Makers To Cut Competition

Source: I'm a Chinese American currently in China

I am an American Chinese currently in America, and unlike you, I was born in China, and knew China from inside and out so much so that I ran away from it

The current China is more capitalistic than the United States of America - in China you won't see nonsense like the Obamacare because, according to the Chinese culture everyone is supposed to taking care of one's own life, and health

The government's job is to protect the country and to ensure that the society doesn't falter. It ain't the government's job to cuddle the people (at least Confucius never says so)

Although I ain't a Chinese national anymore I am still a(n ethnic) Chinese through and through and I happen to agree with what the government of China is doing

To say that China is going back to Communism is to lie with both eyes wide open. Xi is no communist, in fact, he is *VERY* afraid of the "deep red" faction within the CCP, that is why there are so much "anti-graft" operations around --- all designed to crush his opponents, the "deep red" faction of the Tai Zhi Dang

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